"300" Sequel Gets A New Title

First it was "Xerxes". Then it became "300: Battle Of Artemisium". Now, the "prequel meets side-quel" to the 2007 film adaptation of Frank Miller's "300" has finally settled on an official and permanent title.

"300: Rise Of An Empire" is the name of the Noam Murro-directed project which stars Eva Green, Sullivan Stapleton, Jack O'Connell and Yigal Naor along with returning champ Rodrigo Santoro. The story is said to explore the rise of Xerxes (Santoro) from a ruler to the chained and gold speedo clad God Emperor we glimpsed in the first film.

Events take place both before and alongside the Battle of Thermopylae, which means we'll likely glimpse the Battle of Marathon. We'll also see Xerxes father Darius I who lead the first attempted Persian invasion of Greece a decade before Thermopylae.

We're also likely to see Eva Green's Artemisia character in action in naval battles - both the Battle of Artemisium and later the Battle of Salamis. Production is currently underway in Sofia, Bulgaria.